14 January [1806]

I am sorry for the
occasion which has prevented us from receiving the pleasure of a visit from you
while the fine weather lasted, but I hope we shall be more fortunate in the
approaching spring.

MrBarbauld2 desires me to inform you that everything
is settled satisfactorily with respect to the library, & that there is no
demand whatever against you.He
would have written himself to give you this information, but the affair is but
just now concluded.

I have renewed my
application to MrPhillips on your
account, who positively assures me that the historyis printing& that it will be out by Lady day.3 You may
depend upon it that I shall not fail to bring him to a settlement as soon as
the estimate can be made, but I believe we must have patience till that time.

I am acquainted
with no particular account of the abolition of the societyofJesuits except
the short piece of D’Alembert entitled Sur la Destruction des Jesuits,4 which I
have, at your service, if you are not possessed of it. Probably the Annual
Registers contain further information, under the years in which the events took
place. A Life of Pope Gregory5 must also afford information on this point. I see
in the reviews a work of DrHayn’swhich
seems to be annals of the last half-century: This can hardly fail to touch upon
the topic.

My wife &
daughters join in respectful compltswith,Dear
Madam,

Your faithful friend & servt

J. Aikin

Stoke Newington

Jan 14. 1805

Address: Miss Hays | 9 StGeorge’s Place | Camberwell

Postmark: 1[?] January 180[?]

Statement.6

From MrPhillips’s
letter of agreement it appears that Miss Hays was employed tocontinueMrsCharlotte
Smith’s ^work^ down to the present time; it is therefore obvious that themodeof doing it was prescribed by what was already
done by MrsSmith; & in
fact her manuscript was sent to Miss Hays as a
model.

It appears to me
that Miss Hays has executed her part in a manner not inferior to that of MrsSmith, & particularly that she has at least
as much ofthe state of manners & society. This, in reality makes a small part in the performance of each of them;
but, if MrPhillips was satisfied with the composition of MrsSmith, he has no reason to be dissatisfied with
that of Miss Hays.

With respect tolength, it is to be remarked that the later parts of
English history being the most interesting, they require being written more at
large than the earlier. However, after MrPhillips
had given specific directions to Miss Hays in this point, she was bound to
conform to them as nearly as the matter would permit; & if she has exceeded
in any considerable degree, it ought to be at her own loss.

As the work was
taken from her in breach of the original agreement, Miss Hays cannot be
expected to take any additional pains to render it more acceptable to MrPhillips.Nevertheless, if he will supply
her with books capable of furnishing more matter relative to manners, I would
recommend that she should make some augmentation in this part, at the same rate
of payment as the rest.

I find nothing,
therefore, to deduct from Miss Hays’s claim, except such excess of historical
matteras maysurpass MrPhillips’s
directions, & must bethrownout in the printing. If, also, any skill in
authorship is required in reducing such exuberant matter, & Miss Hays does
not chuse to take the trouble of it herself, she should make an allowance for
the doing it.

J. Aikin

Attached to
the above statement is the following undated letter by Aikin to Hays:

Dear Madam

After much delay
on account of the mislaying MrsSmith’s
papers, I have seen them, & made up my opinion as to the whole case, which
I have given in the above statement, an exact transcript of which I haveleft with^written for^ MrPhillips. He agrees to submit the affair to my
arbitration. I shall therefore take the earliest opportunity of bringing it to
a conclusion, & remain,

Yours very sincerely

J. Aikin

Address: Miss Hays | St George’s Place |
Camberwell

Postmark: 17 [?]

1 Misc. Ms.
2149, Pforzheimer Collection, NYPL; Brooks,Correspondence339. Aikin has clearly misdated the letter, a typical January error, for the Lady Day publication of the History was in March 1806, not 1805.

2 Rev. Rochemont Barbauld, husband of
Anna Letitia Barbauld, at that time living in Stoke Newington, near John Aikin.

3 Reference is to Charlotte Smith’s
three-volume The History of England, from
the Earliest Records to the Peace of Amiens. In a Series of Letters to a Young
Lady at School (London: R. Phillips, 1806). Mary Hays wrote volume 3.

4 Jean Le Rond d’Alembert’s Sur la destruction des Jesuites appeared
in 1767 and in 1805. The Society of Jesus (known as the Jesuits) were a
Catholic society that originated in Spain in the 16th century, led
by Ignatius of Loyola; the society’s mission was primarily evangelization and
prosyletization of largely unchurched communities (thus, the Jesuits were an
early missionary society) as well as education, founding many institutions of
higher learning around the world.